How Can Social Media Affect Teenagers Mental Health?

Teenagers  Mental Health: We just celebrated World Mental Health Day, a global celebration that raises awareness of mental health to promote good change. Adolescent mental health demands special attention in this age of social media, where questions regarding psychological addiction and other issues have been addressed.

Anxiety Over Social Media

According to a recent Facebook study, Instagram can affect the mental health of teenagers, particularly girls. When it came to feeling horrible, 32% of young females indicated that Instagram made them feel even worse. Unrealistic ideals of attractiveness and insecurities about their standard of living compared to those depicted on the screen were among the most commonly stated sources of stress.

Instagram is attempting to address some of these issues by adding new features such as obscuring the likes counter and banning filters that promote excessive beauty standards.

Users Can Also Take The Following Easy Steps:

• Unsubscribe from any accounts that make you feel unhappy, insecure, or upset.
• Reduce the amount of time you spend on the internet.
• To disconnect from social media, relax, and focus on yourself, take little pauses and digitally detox. To assist you, Kaspersky has created a digital CyberSpa environment.

Cyberbullying

Another well-known problem that can impact a teen’s mental health is cyberbullying. It should not be permitted or disregarded whenever it occurs.

If a teen is being bullied online, they should first seek support from their parents or other trusted adults such as a school counsellor, sports coach, or teacher. If the victim is hesitant to inform their friends about the issue, they can call a helpline and speak with a professional counsellor.

Today, social media platforms, such as Instagram, employ artificial intelligence to counteract nasty comments on photos and videos. Each social media network also includes features for controlling who can comment on or read your postings, blocking people, and reporting bullying or intimidation. It can also be beneficial to collect proof in the form of screenshots to validate what is happening.

Facebook

Facebook has created a Teen Anti-Bullying Center. You can use the following strategies to combat bullying on Facebook:

• Please keep track of who has tagged you in their content. In the Chronicle & Tags settings, you can accomplish this.
• Using the Activity Log, check for your tags in previously published works and, if required, delete them from materials you don’t wish to be connected with.
• Remove the attackers from your friend’s list, so they don’t have a chance to contact you. You can also block people if removing them does not work. Remember that they will not be alerted. Abusers will be unable to find your profile and tag your material if you block them. They will also be unable to add you as a friend or track your activities.
• Make care to notify the support service if any materials are offensive. You can make a complaint regarding content next to a post, photo, or comment, and Facebook moderators will see it.

Instagram

• Instagram keeps track of the stuff that users post. If the platform detects future infractions, the user will be notified that they will post information that violates the rules. Instagram users can also take the following steps:
• To safeguard your account without alerting risky people, employ a restricted tool.
• Moderate the comments that appear beneath your postings.
• Change your account’s privacy settings to control who views and comments on your content.

Twitter

There’s also an Online Bullying Aid Center where you may get help and guidance on Twitter. Users of Twitter can take the following steps to combat bullying:

• Use Twitter’s notification filters, which have been expanded. Can we use these to filter which accounts send you notifications.
• You may personalise the mute and notification options on Twitter to fit your needs. We can, for example, disable notifications for specific terms or phrases. You can disable notifications for a day, a week, or an unlimited period.
• The option to block users is also a good move. Blocked accounts will no longer be able to publish, see your tweets, or read your feed.
• If you have been the victim of bullying, you should also report the offending content. Twitter will be able to take action and block the person or content due to this.

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